Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-07-07

tlves were taken to London, but
the good work only extends for a
short distance beyond the Mission SET
Element
TERRA del Fuego. from Magellan to
Cape Horn, is a sea of mountains.
Wild animals are rare and the only
birds are the albatross. the sea gull and
the Cape pigeon. Half the missing
vessels reported which have to go
round the Horn are supposed to be lost
on this barren island and nobody ever
lives to tell the tale.
Crossing over to Patagonia, we
have Punta Arenas. more generally
known as Sandy Point. q Chilean
penal settlement and coaling station.
Among the milder-tempercd and more
| intelligent Patagonians life in this lit
tie town, though lonely, is not without
| its attractions The main street
boasts of some substantial houses,
| there is a fort, Governors residence,
convict barracks and respectable
custom-house and jetty. The inhab-
itants (about five hundred) are a
| mixed population Of Scotch, Chilean,
| English and natives. Most of the En-
disappearing part of the settlement
| represent different houses in the fur
trade The Governor is polite and
hospitable, and is always anxious to
amuse the casual visitor to the best of
his ability. A collection Of rare skins,
feathers and ostrich eggs meets the
eye in every house.
| The convict establish ment is well
| conducted. and the prisoners have 4
great deal of liberty. Here every
nationality under the sun is repre-
sented, most of the foreigners under
going their sentences for embezzle-
ment or fraud. The Chileans punish
above offenses very severely, a TEN
year sentence being considered light.
The evenings are passed in singing
and dancing TO the music of the
| ubiquitous guitar.
Near the town are coal mines. which
produce a tolerablv good fuel, but all
| minerals in this large country are
waiting for capital and hardy workers
who can defy hardship aud brave
dangers. Patagonia is essentially a
mineral country. On the eastern coast
| the Argentine Republic encourages
miners with liberal concessions and
valuable privileges, the result
being the extraction of gold in con-
siderable quantities by rude means and
primitive methods. In this country
there is virgin soil to work on, and in
this respect it should offer better in
ducemeuts than the abandoned mines
of Peru and Bolivia, in which countries
every native is 4 miner by instinct and
experience.
The Chilean Government, ever liber-
al in encoura ging capital and immi-
grafton. would welcome and aid any
enterprise which would tend TO the
opening up of mysterious Patagonia
The interior of the country consists of
| table-lands. with several ranges Of
hills trending in northeasterly direc-
ton. Innumerable streams and lakes
are to be met with, which in the winter
months are frozen up. The climate is
about the same as the south Of Alaska.
Sandy Point is six days steam from
Valparaiso by the fast mail boats. The
scenery of the straits of Magellan and
Smiths sound is magnificent Vege-
tation grows from the waters edge,
terrace above terrace, their straight
lines ever and anon broken by some
beautiful inlet into which an enormous
glacier stretches and the back ground
composed of purple; then sEow-clad
mountains which throw Swiss Alps
and Spanish Pyrenees into insignifi-
canoe. On 4 summer day such views
keep the traveller on deck from dawn
till evening, every turn and twist of
the straits unfolding new panoramic
effects to the artistic eye. as the steam
er threads its way through intricate
channels beyond soundings in some
places, miles in breadth one moment,
so narrow another that the trees al
most touch the yards of the vessel on
either side.-Cor. San Francisco Chro,s-
icte